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Liz Cheney eyes the political stage

The speculation in Wyoming is that she could launch a campaign as early as 2014, when Sen. Mike Enzi’s (R-Wyo.) term is up. Enzi, who will be 70 then, has not indicated whether he’s running for re-election. It’s highly unlikely that Cheney would run against him in a primary. But the betting among Washington Republicans is that Enzi may retire if Republicans don’t take control of the Senate this November and he doesn’t take the gavel on the HELP committee, where he’s the ranking member.

“The only thing he’s said is he’s looking forward to being Chairman of HELP if we get the majority back,” said Enzi spokesman Daniel Head. “He loves his job and feels like he’s making a difference.”

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Neither of the other two members of the Wyoming congressional delegation – Sen. John Barrasso (R) and Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R) — is likely to move home anytime soon. But both Lummis and GOP Gov. Matt Mead, whose first term is up in 2014, could also look at the Senate seat should Enzi call it a career. If she wanted to avoid such a primary, Cheney could run for the at-large House seat should Lummis attempt to move to the Senate.

An attorney, Cheney served during the Bush administration as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. Since President Barack Obama’s election, she has been an outspoken critic of the administration on national security both as a Fox News contributor and through an advocacy group she co-founded, Keep America Safe.

But in recent months, her focus has been as local as national. Just this week, she spoke to the Casper Chamber of Commerce in central Wyoming one night and to the Uinta County Republicans near the Utah border the next.

Ron Wild, Chairman of the Uinta County GOP, said they filled up all 175 chairs they put out for their dinner.

“The response was very positive, very favorable,” Wild said.

Cheney spent much of her childhood split between living in the Washington, D.C., area and returning with her father to Wyoming. Were she to run, she would almost certainly face a primary challenge and charges of carpet-bagging. Her father overcame similar claims when in 1978 he moved back to Wyoming following his time as President Gerald Ford’s chief of staff and captured the state’s at-large House seat when it came open that year. The situation is not exactly analogous, though. The elder Cheney spent most of his childhood in Casper and graduated from the University of Wyoming, while his daughter attended schools in suburban Washington and attended college in Colorado.

Jim King, a political science professor at the University of Wyoming, pointed to the failure of former Sen. Alan Simpson’s son to win a gubernatorial primary two years ago in noting the limitations of being a legacy candidate.

“The Cheney name is still familiar, of course, but that doesn’t mean she’d be automatic,” said King.

One Wyoming Republican insider said it would be considerably less, noting that all three members of the current delegation first paid their dues by serving in the legislature.

“And folks who run from Jackson tend to lose,” said this Republican, noting that the wealthy enclave is not the best staging ground for a statewide run.

But Wild, the county chair, said Cheney would get a fair hearing, no more and no less, if she eventually ran.

“She’d get same reception anyone else would,” said Wild. “She is pretty well-known in the state and she’s very articulate and very intelligent.”

Liz Cheney will do well based on the vitriol coming from the press. The left wing media is having conniptions - she will tell it like it is - same as her father - And, while there is no real evidence of her management skills you have to assume they are much better than Obama's skills since she was raised in a functional as opposed to a dysfunctional family. Obama is lucky to know who is father was and I doubt they did any DNA testing at the time.

hope she does something in the state first to get some management skills - assuming the state can provide those - Perhaps, she would be wiser to speak with Mitt and get some help ion getting the ball rolling in the right alley. She may even be able to vote something other than "PRESENT"

Yup...I"m a Lefty Democrat who would love Ms Cheney as a candidate. She's bright; witty; knowledgeable; well-informed; dead-right on all the issues; literate; hard-working; attractive; open-minded; did I say attractive?; informed; civil; truthful; a good listener; willing to compromise for the good of the country; attentive; did I literate?

After seeing what the leftwing hate machine dished out to her father, she knows what she's in for. Hope she has a flak vest and helmet, and security guys who know how to screen mail for letter bombs, etc. The unabomber may be in prison, but there are plenty more just like him, including some mentally unbalanced, hate-filled psychotics who post here on politico.